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Out of Chaos, Hope

Published 2017-08-31

“Unprecedented;” “1000 year flood;” “If all the rain that has fallen on south Texas in just the last few days were spread out over the lower 48 United States, it would mean almost 2” of rain falling on every square inch of the country.” The rain in Houston was so bad that meteorologists didn’t think the “red” on the radar maps, indicating the biggest storms, was accurate, so they added purple to show areas of torrential rain that had never been experienced before. The average annual rainfall in Kansas City is about 36”, Parts of Houston got more than that much rain over the weekend.

If you contributed to the One Great Hour of sharing offering in the spring, some of the money you gave is already working in Texas to provide assistance. A third of the offering goes to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA), which is a kind of Presbyterian Red Cross. They don’t have nearly the resources or the humanpower of larger relief organizations, but they partner with churches and people on the ground in disaster areas to offer assistance in whatever ways possible. Relief materials and trained volunteers are immediately sent to offer help in recovery and guide the use of resources kept in reserve for immediate use. They really do help create order and hope out of chaos.

The truth is that the rebuilding in Texas will take months and probably years. If only 20% of the victims had flood insurance that means 80% of them will be on their own to figure out where and how to live. Long after this story has faded from the headlines, I hope that we continue to pray and find ways to offer real help. Adult mission trip, anyone?

For now we have to leave it to the experts. If you want to do something more, then there is really nothing better that you can do at this moment that pray and offer support to PDA.